Since MGM first dropped an Oscar advertisement for “Ah, Wilderness!” in 1935, awards season has continued to cost Hollywood producers a pretty penny. But it took Harvey Weinstein’s tenure at Miramax to revolutionize it.
The Weinstein brothers took their Oscar campaigns to the next level in the latter half of the 90s, chasing Oscar voters across Los Angeles to send directors, actresses, and shiny objects to wine and dine them. They would hire a small army of the town’s top publicists to lobby the academy and smear the competition while spending millions on coordinated ad campaigns. And under the arms race of the Weinstein rule of Miramax, awards season became constant, with publicists paid to generate buzz for their films year-round.
Now, of course, Weinstein’s reign of terror has ended, and it seems as though streaming services will revolutionize the terrain of cinema once more. As the old studios fail to meet the demands of domestic audiences in their crusades to dominate Chinese markets and art houses, Netflix has capitalized on the void. This year, seeing a dearth of viable Best Picture nominees thanks to an industry increasingly divorced from its consumers, Netflix put all its cards on the table, engaging in one of the most expensive ad campaigns in cinematic history.
According to a study by Variety, a standard awards season campaign can cost a studio anywhere from $3 to $10 million. Netflix blew its competition out of the water, spending a whopping $25 million to secure 10 nominations — a tie with the Oscar record — for “Roma.”
The streaming giant’s strategy seems flawless on its face. Director Alfonso Cuaron is already an academy mainstay, and “Roma” itself features all of the theatrics, aesthetics, and black-and-white cinematography required to overshadow Hollywood’s lowbrow opinion of streaming services. Most importantly, “Roma” will compete against an objectively weak field.
Critics and viewers destroyed “Vice,” viewed as the initial frontrunner by studio bosses. “A Star Is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” may be seen as too mainstream, defying the academy’s recent trend of voting for films no one actually watched. “Green Book” found itself unexpectedly entrenched in woke controversy, and the campy, delightful, and subversive “BlacKkKlansman” won’t suit the milquetoast tastes of the academy.
That leaves “The Favourite,” tied with “Roma” for nominations, and “Black Panther,” the first comic book film to break into the Best Picture nominees.
I’m not a betting woman, but given the groundbreaking viewership garnered by “Bird Box” and “You,” it looks like Netflix’s year is about to get even better.
